The Lure of Less

Something amazing happened at the ARRL board of directors
meeting in January. The board — which includes five
newly-elected directors among its 15 members — put the
brakes on changes in League governance and other matters
that have been generating controversy among the members for
the past two-and-a-half years (Details of the board’s actions are
in “News Bytes” on page 9). These changes began with the
removal of a long-time volunteer from a top position in the
National Traffic System and from his elected position as a
Section Manager; continued through questionable actions by
the Elections and Ethics Committee, including canceling elections
and disqualifying candidates without explanation to members;
adoption of a code of conduct for directors and vice directors
that essentially stifled dissent outside the board room;
proposed changes to the League’s governing documents that
would have diluted directors’ voting power and limited the role
of vice directors, and questionable changes in a key piece of
legislation intended to prohibit outright bans on amateur radio
antennas (the Amateur Radio Parity Act).

ARRL members, major clubs, and big donors became very
concerned about these actions and began threatening to withhold
support unless things changed. CQ provided a platform for
dissenting voices to be heard and has published no less than a
dozen articles, white papers, and news items since late 2016
calling for members to reassert their ultimate authority as the
“owners” of the ARRL through their votes for board members.

In addition, a group of concerned League members started an
organization and webpage called My ARRL Voice . The group focused on promoting transparency and
accountability by League management and the board of directors,
and endorsed candidates in five director elections held last
fall. Four of those five “voice”-endorsed candidates won.

The impact of the election results began to be felt even before
the first board meeting at which the new directors would cast
votes, most notably with the resignation as of December 31 of
longtime ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD. Chris had
been a key member of the team that was shepherding the
Amateur Radio Parity Act through Congress and working to
overcome the objections of the lobbying organization for homeowners’
associations. Based on what we’ve been able to determine,
Chris decided to step down after it became clear that the
new board was going to revisit the League’s approach to the
parity act, but not before filing a petition with the FCC on behalf
of the ARRL (at the direction of the Executive Committee,
despite requests to delay action until the new board was seated)
asking that the provisions of the parity act be added to the
amateur rules. The board responded by cutting all remaining
ties with Imlay as well as the League’s Washington lobbyist,
withdrawing the FCC petition and asking the bill’s sponsors in
Congress to put it on hold until there’d been time to “review,
reexamine, and reappraise” the ARRL’s approach to the issue.

The board also repealed the controversial code of conduct
and began the process of making significant changes in the
Elections and Ethics Committee and how it functions (see News
Bytes for details). One director who had been restricted from
certain board activities by the Elections and Ethics Committee
was appointed to the committee after the board reversed the
previous committee’s ruling.

What was most interesting to us was that many of the motions
carrying out this change of direction, and in some cases, reversals
of previous actions, were approved by large margins, some
unanimous, some 12-3 and a few 10-5. This suggests to us that
many of the incumbent directors voted for the previous changes
not so much because they supported them but because they
were intimidated by the actions of the previous Executive
Committee and Elections and Ethics Committee, and feared that
they might face censure, expulsion, or disqualification from
seeking re-election if they dared to voice opposition. As we pointed
out at the time, the ARRL is a membership organization
whose leaders need to be responsive to the members’ needs
… and that the members need to take action when their leaders
are not working in their best interests. We are very pleased
that the members reasserted their interests via their votes and
that the new board appears to taking the members’ concerns to
heart. We hope it continues.

About Those Late Issues…
We want to bring you up-to-date a bit on our very obvious problems
in recent months with getting the print edition of CQ into
the mail on a timely basis. As this is written in early February,
most of you had just received your December issues. We apologize
for these delays and thank you for your tremendous
patience. Bottom line: It’s a very challenging time to be in the
magazine publishing business. Many titles are closing or going
digital-only. We have no plans to do that. In our experience, digital-
only specialty magazines cannot support themselves in the
long run. We had almost gotten back on track last summer, but
then hit a pothole that set us back once again. And one delay
led to another. Now that things are moving again, it is our plan
to try to catch up a little bit each month until we’re back on schedule.
Many readers have complained that our hamfest and contest
listings are out of date by the time the magazine arrives.
We recognize that this is a problem and have tried to accommodate
for it by running two months’ worth of listings in each
issue. Plus, these calendars are both posted on our website on
a timely basis, along with current news on the CQ Newsroom
. Again, our apologies for
the delays and our thanks to you, our wonderful readers, for
your patience and understanding.

Housekeeping Notes
This issue contains the final “CQ World Wide” international
news column by Tom Smerk, AA6TS. As Tom explains in his
column, he is also a musician and that part of his life is taking
up more of his time, so he doesn’t feel he can continue to devote
the necessary time to researching, gathering news items, and
writing the column each month. Tom has brought news of ham
radio events and activities around the world to our readers for
the past six years. We thank him for his contributions and wish
him all the best in his growing music career.

“Listening Post” editor Gerry Dexter was again unable to do
his column this month (yours truly filled in again), but all indications
are that he’ll be back on the job as of the next issue. We’ll
be glad to have him back. Finally, we’re still looking for a successor
to Ted Melinosky, K1BV, as both Awards Editor and USACA
Awards Manager. We’ve got a description of what we need
for each position in this month’s Awards column. If you’re interested
and think you might be qualified for either or both, please
send me an email.

Spring returns this month … time to start planning new antenna
projects and outdoor operating adventures. Get outside, get
on the air and have fun! – 73, Rich W2VU